setting malt mill

Dutto said:

On the bottom photograph you will see that I have inserted an 8mm nut (this has now been increased to a 10mm nut) between the bridle and the main body of the mill.

I think that this was the missing "spacer" mentioned in the video because without the nut there the bridle just clamps the two plates tight up against each other.

What it does is to allow the moveable grinding plate to be adjusted in and out by the adjusting screw on the end.

I hope that's a clear enough description ... :thumb:

... but I wish I had a name for all the bits and pieces!


PS

I've also replaced the wing-nuts with nylock nuts and "jiggled" the bridle about so that the two grinding plates are parallel.

Before the "jiggling" process the moveable plate was at an angle and caught on the fixed plate.

PPS

I wish I could say that I "adjusted" the bridle but that would be really pretentious in view of what I actually did! :lol: :lol:

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Ha haa... I just left the wing nuts loose on mine so it all wobbles about when you crank it. But it still works fine. Mine came with no instructions at all so I had to guess a bit...

Cwrw666 said:

Ha haa... I just left the wing nuts loose on mine so it all wobbles about when you crank it. But it still works fine. Mine came with no instructions at all so I had to guess a bit...

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Me too with lack of instructions! Just a photo on the box of a much better made model. :lol:

Well after milling my grains this morningit seems my mill has two 'settings'. Course, so course in fact it wasn't cracking about half of the grain. Or fine-ish A bit finer then some biscuit malt I compared it too that I got from GEB but I definately doesnt turn everything into flour.
The washer spacers didnt work at all. The grain didnt get cracked when I had the washers in so I took them out again

I think the spacers are probably only needed when the ball bearing gets removed.

My crush is very adjustable and yours should be too as its not a course adjusting screw thread?

My assistant didn't have time to let me show the different finess of crush in my video of mine grinding above in this thread, but if I can I'll get her to shoot another.

cheapbrew said:

I think the spacers are probably only needed when the ball bearing gets removed.

My crush is very adjustable and yours should be too as its not a course adjusting screw thread?

My assistant didn't have time to let me show the different finess of crush in my video of mine grinding above in this thread, but if I can I'll get her to shoot another.

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I've removed the ball bearing and the spacers caused the mill to barely crush the grain

May be I'm doing something wrong? I think I'm happy with the crush though tbh. I only got 62% efficiency today with my no-sparge biab but I strongly think this is to do with the fact you get an efficiency drop without doing a sparge, rather than anything to do with the crush. I didnt do a mashout maybe this might help up the efficiency

Have you tried it with the ball bearing in?
I know mine was bought from a different source, but they are the same simple design, so it should work as well as mine in theory.

I only do a dunk sparge and then rinse the grain with a little boiled water(mashout) and then put a tight fitting polystyrene pad into my mash tube and put all my weight on it and squeeze every last drop out of it, and I'm getting good efficiencies.

cheapbrew said:

Have you tried it with the ball bearing in?
I know mine was bought from a different source, but they are the same simple design, so it should work as well as mine in theory.

I only do a dunk sparge and then rinse the grain with a little boiled water(mashout) and then put a tight fitting polystyrene pad into my mash tube and put all my weight on it and squeeze every last drop out of it, and I'm getting good efficiencies.

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I haven't actually tried it with the ball bearing in. I'll give that a go next time and see if it makes any difference

I left the ball-bearing in on the basis that there is a concave section on the end of the spindle that fits around the ball bearing. This provides a smooth bearing surface which should minimise any problems caused by the thrust forces encountered when milling the grain.

Without the 2 x 10mm nuts between the bridle and the main body of the mill I was unable to get any real adjustment because the two grinding plates were so close together. I think this may be why people suggest removing the ball-bearing on this model.

With the 2 x 10mm nuts in place (and the ball-bearing left in place) I have an adjustable grinding gap that could conceivably take large kernels of corn and mill them down to a flour consistency by adjusting the grinding plate over three or four passes.

One of the things I did notice was that without "jiggling" the bridle to ensure that it was located central to the main body the moveable disc sat at an angle.

Due to the weight of the bridle, this resulted in a wide gap at the top of the disc and a small gap at the bottom.

I think that this misalignment may be the reason why, within a single grind, some grains are left hardly touched (they came out of the wide gap at the top) and others were crushed really fine (they came out of the narrow gap at the bottom).

I apologise for the cover being on in the photograph. Later today I will take the cover off and photograph it in action. :thumb: :thumb:

I removed the ballbearing, fully tightened the wing nuts on the side and wound the large wing nut all the way back (first of all to pop the ball bearing) and then adjusted to credit card thickness. I think I have a little adjustability and may need to re-tighten before my next brew day.

Used it for the first time yesterday for just my speciality malt for a gh recipe, which I accidently brewed long as (one of) my brew day mistake(s)...

I was very happy that my crushed grain was at least as fine if not finer than the crushed Base malt.

Here's photographs as promised.

First is the milling gap for todays grain. It still shows a slight slant on the grinder but that seemed to sort itself out when it started running.

The second photo is of the milled grain. Not a great deal of "flour" produced and very happy with the result. :thumb:

As a quick fix you can put a credit card between the roller the thickness is just about where you need it.


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@Dutto would you happen to know what the gap was to get this grain crush

Peter

(I've edited your post so Dutto get a notification - MyQul :thumb: )

It was (and still is) as per the photograph.

In the photo is shows the grinding plate as being on a slant but that disappeared when the mill started running.

Sorry I can't be more precise. At the moment I have knocked off for the day but I intend to brew tomorrow so I will try and remember to get the feeler gauge in there and let you know the result. :thumb:

Dutto said:

It was (and still is) as per the photograph.

In the photo is shows the grinding plate as being on a slant but that disappeared when the mill started running.

Sorry I can't be more precise. At the moment I have knocked off for the day but I intend to brew tomorrow so I will try and remember to get the feeler gauge in there and let you know the result. :thumb:

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get the feeler gauges out.....(have fun)
that looks like a pretty good grain crush.....
better than what I have bought recently

Dutto said:

It was (and still is) as per the photograph.

In the photo is shows the grinding plate as being on a slant but that disappeared when the mill started running.

Sorry I can't be more precise. At the moment I have knocked off for the day but I intend to brew tomorrow so I will try and remember to get the feeler gauge in there and let you know the result. :thumb:

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Yep, that looks a much finer crush than my pre crushed bought grain. Definitely time for a grain mill to increase my 'efficiency '
Mmmm? A 20 quid eBay job or splash the cash on a Bulldog ?

Redron said:

Yep, that looks a much finer crush than my pre crushed bought grain. Definitely time for a grain mill to increase my 'efficiency '
Mmmm? A 20 quid eBay job or splash the cash on a Bulldog ?

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Splash the cash, I have a Bulldog and always get good effiecency.

This is my set up.

I already had the drill from Lidl, I already had the scratched FV, I found the nuts, bolts and bits of wood knocking about the garage, the mill cost me £19 from The Home Brew Shop, it took me less than an afternoon to sort it all out.

The bottom photograph is a handful of the finished product; which may be improved if I take the trouble to condition the malt.

Enjoy. :thumb:

I dug out the feeler gauges today and checked the gap on the mill.

At the widest point it is set to 1.45mm to give the milled grain seen in the photograph. At the narrowest point I could't get the 1.0mm feeler gauge in.

It doesn't touch the static grinder when it's running so, despite the "flakes of metal coming off" Post, I'm not all that worried. :thumb:

Enjoy! :thumb:

I decided to dismantle and re-mantle the Mill today.

First thing I did was to take everything apart, file off a lot of the rough bits on the bearing surfaces and try to do without the spacers I had installed,

I then removed the clips holding the ballbearing in place and drilled a shallow "U" in the end of the main shaft where it had been marked by the bearing in previous use. (Photograph 1.)

The next thing I did was to reassemble the mill with a couple of shims held in place top and bottom with the bridle nuts hand-tight. I centralised the grinding disc and as I tightened up the bridle nuts I kept slacking off the bolt that sets the grinding gap so that the disc stayed centred and level either side. (Photograph 2.)

I set the disc gap at 1.45mm and milled a few grams of grain. I then kept back a sample and milled the rest twice after changing the setting on the milling disc by "a quarter turn" on each occasion. The three different grades showed me just how fine an adjustment can be made and how even the smallest adjustment will affect the milling of the malt for brewing! (Photograph 3.)

Finally, when I put the mill away for the next brew I took a photograph of it all ready to rock-and-roll. I keep a small dehumidifier in with the mill to ensure that any grain or flour remaining in the FV between uses is kept as dry as possible to discourage the growth of mould!

Enjoy! :thumb:

Dutto said:

I decided to dismantle and re-mantle the Mill today.

First thing I did was to take everything apart, file off a lot of the rough bits on the bearing surfaces and try to do without the spacers I had installed,

I then removed the clips holding the ballbearing in place and drilled a shallow "U" in the end of the main shaft where it had been marked by the bearing in previous use. (Photograph 1.)

The next thing I did was to reassemble the mill with a couple of shims held in place top and bottom with the bridle nuts hand-tight. I centralised the grinding disc and as I tightened up the bridle nuts I kept slacking off the bolt that sets the grinding gap so that the disc stayed centred and level either side. (Photograph 2.)

I set the disc gap at 1.45mm and milled a few grams of grain. I then kept back a sample and milled the rest twice after changing the setting on the milling disc by "a quarter turn" on each occasion. The three different grades showed me just how fine an adjustment can be made and how even the smallest adjustment will affect the milling of the malt for brewing! (Photograph 3.)

Finally, when I put the mill away for the next brew I took a photograph of it all ready to rock-and-roll. I keep a small dehumidifier in with the mill to ensure that any grain or flour remaining in the FV between uses is kept as dry as possible to discourage the growth of mould!

Enjoy! :thumb:

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Good idea about the de-humidifier. I think I'll do the same